It's very easy to dismiss the group of Irish women in the opening scene bashing a young girl praying in the side as a bunch of hateful hags. No reason is given other than the fact that the men of the Town find her alluring. When they go to the priest to have the girl, Siobhan MacKenna, removed as a cleaning woman in the church, you don't really get to see their reaction, but their problem now gone becomes a problem for the women of a family where she is sent to in an English countryside. MacKenna is certainly a mystery. when first seeing, she is in deep prayer, but the women of that Irish town and the English town she moves to buy no choice of her own find her without knowing why to be evil and a bad influence on their men.
Employed by the family of Anne Crawford, MacKenna stirs up the feelings of one of the younger male members of the family which leads to an ugly scene between her, Crawford and other women in the family. MacKenna has a past relationship with a traveling carnival worker, and when she runs into him in the English countryside, it is not long before violence occurs, and the man is found dead. A deep distrust erupts with her female employers, especially with the suspicious Crawford who slowly becomes more deranged as she deals with this young, if not conventionally attractive, minx.
This is a dark, fascinating melodrama with MacKenna providing a lot of mystery that makes you wonder if she is engaged as horrible as all the women think, and if she is indeed capable of murder. Terrific photography, editing and a wonderful musical score help makes this one of the best sleeper thrillers of the 1940's, perfect in practically every detail even if certain elements of the story create questions that go unanswered. In a sense, MacKenna's character is a female version of Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" in that her actions are innate and unpreventable. But the fact that the men are so easily manipulated by sex and that the women can't help but gossip and hate other women gives this a darkness and one sided view of the individual sexes. In spite of its flaws, this film is irresistible from start to finish, and to watch it unfold really as pulling yourself deep into a brilliant novel.
Employed by the family of Anne Crawford, MacKenna stirs up the feelings of one of the younger male members of the family which leads to an ugly scene between her, Crawford and other women in the family. MacKenna has a past relationship with a traveling carnival worker, and when she runs into him in the English countryside, it is not long before violence occurs, and the man is found dead. A deep distrust erupts with her female employers, especially with the suspicious Crawford who slowly becomes more deranged as she deals with this young, if not conventionally attractive, minx.
This is a dark, fascinating melodrama with MacKenna providing a lot of mystery that makes you wonder if she is engaged as horrible as all the women think, and if she is indeed capable of murder. Terrific photography, editing and a wonderful musical score help makes this one of the best sleeper thrillers of the 1940's, perfect in practically every detail even if certain elements of the story create questions that go unanswered. In a sense, MacKenna's character is a female version of Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" in that her actions are innate and unpreventable. But the fact that the men are so easily manipulated by sex and that the women can't help but gossip and hate other women gives this a darkness and one sided view of the individual sexes. In spite of its flaws, this film is irresistible from start to finish, and to watch it unfold really as pulling yourself deep into a brilliant novel.